Peru Rebels Suspected In Attacks

May 17, 1986|United Press International

LIMA, Peru -- Suspected left-wing rebels set off incendiary bombs in three Lima movie theaters, destroying one of them, and dynamite blasts jolted Peru`s capital city and an Andean mining town Friday. Two injuries were reported.

Police said rebels also threw dynamite at two local offices of President Alan Garcia`s ruling Social Democratic Party in eastern Lima, causing some damage.

No rebel group claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks, but police have been expecting an offensive by Maoist Shining Path rebels to mark Sunday`s sixth anniversary of the start of the group`s guerrilla war.

More than 7,000 people have died in rebel-related violence since Shining Path took up arms in an effort to impose communist Chinese-style peasant rule on Peru.

The rebels appeared to begin their offensive Thursday night with a car bombing two blocks from the main plaza in Ayacucho, the former stronghold of Shining Path.

A station wagon that police said was loaded with 33 pounds of dynamite blew up, wounding a policeman and a pedestrian, police said. Authorities also found the remains of tiny incendiary bombs after fires broke out in empty movie theaters.